The main objective of the paper was to analyze the institutional aspects of the functioning of the World Trade Organization. To this end, the structure of the 1994 WTO Agreement, the Organization's tasks, the principles of membership acquisition, as well as the organs and the decision-making rules of the WTO were presented. The WTO is (as opposed to GATT 1947) a fully structured international organization and its operation is of utmost importance for gradual abolition of restrictions on the global trade in goods, services and intellectual property rights. Thus, the knowledge of the WTO's functioning principles is a factor substantially facilitating the understanding of the globalization process.